Ask the Bootmaker Jim Brainard

Ask the Bootmaker podcast with Jim Brainard

• early life in rodeo
• started tooling, making chaps
• mom taking boots to repair shop
• “I’ll never work in a place like that!”
• boot repairer subletting in the back of a western wear store
• learned by repairing
• learned from Dave “Hutch” Hutchings, but mostly repair, not making
• built up a repair business, retail footwear, etc.
• around 2000, sold off part to a partner, started working from home
• call Hutch back up
• “most humbling experience of my life”
• “the more I know, the less I know”
• couple trade shows a year
• Wichita Falls and Sheridan
• “I want a happy customer with a good pair of boots on their feet, but, man, I want others to learn this craft and keep this going, and to be a part of that and see it happen.”
• won big prize at Wichita Falls in 2020
  • two-piece boots, top and foot
  • “it didn’t win at all”
  • did enter in master’s class
  • not a master bootmaker
  • just happened to be unique
  • risky to enter them
  • COVID, so perhaps fewer entries
  • loves going outside the box and challening
  • two-piece not unheard of
  • more common: one piece down the front, one piece down the back
  • seamless vamp, no side or back seams
  • shaft is one piece but seamed along the inside
  • alligator vamp
  • last the vamp over the last, including over the cone and the top plane, then cut it out
  • vamps lasted twice
  • likes natural, basic colors
  • made the boot just to try to make it
  • “drop-in liner”
    • has side seams
    • front and back
    • heel counter attached to liner
  • finished lacing all the way up the top after delasting
  • got the idea seeing a one-piece shoe from a Japanese artists at Sheridan
  • documented creation process on Instagram
  • wanted to a tree inlaid in alligator, but had little left
  • tree in 2-3 pieces spliced
  • “concept boot” a bit freer than customer work
  • “whatever comes out”
  • key: finding the tiles of the alligator
  • award is a shiny buckle
• metal heel savers
  • “to make noise” — “yeah, they do that well”
  • “heel and toe taps”
  • used to do lots of them, vinyl and metal
  • people were saving money, making things last
  • “I don’t like ’em.”
  • affect balance and step
  • little rock stuck underneath you
  • might want on a really sharp toe if you really scuff toes, to avoid wearing into the welt
  • “I really don’t like ’em on the heels”
• repair versus custom making
  • resoling his own custom boots, then will go back on the last, otherwise like other repair jobs
  • otherwise, jack lasts (anvils)
  • can use anvil to help reform arch and shank
  • repair teaches a lot about construction factors
  • vibes have changed over the years
    • from “total blackout”, wouldn’t talk, no trade secrets
    • would call other shops, would have people hang up on him
    • today: some old-school competitiveness, some trade secrets held back, but “everybody shares so well today”
  • doesn’t see a lot of repair people anymore
  • repair diminishing terribly
  • some shops thriving: equestrian communities more than cities
  • compete at the shows, but that’s for motivation to work harder
  • “we’re all comrades in doing it”
  • “healthy competition” [—Jeremiah]
• bought and sold parts of businesses
  • bought a shoe repair business
  • basic equipment
    • curve-needle
    • finisher
    • sewing machine
    • hand tools
  • add-ons from there
  • early or young, you work with what you got
  • tried to add on machinery as he went
  • find shops for sale: you can buy it all, but I’m not just selling one piece
  • would buy a whole shop for one piece, sell the rest off
  • became more over time
  • keep the stuff alive
  • some machinery uncommon
  • Sutton and Landis mostly closed down
  • Landis International, Gateway, Shoe Systems Plus
  • machinery trade started working as a side business
  • takes to trade shows
  • advertise on the Internet
  • keep ’em alive
  • sadly, some have to go to the scrapyard, because no use for them
  • good to have something else to do at the trade shows
  • brings a trailer of machines
  • rents boot spaces
  • “and it’s fun”
  • never bought an active business to keep running or move
  • had two retail storefronts at once for a while
  • now a home-based business
  • no more room at home
  • have 2 or 3 of every machine
  • “kid in a candy store”
  • has sold some for new ones and regretted it
  • curve-needle stitchers all different, have their own quirks
  • e.g. used to run with liquid wax to sew with cotton sinew
    • Texas Traditions still uses cotton sinew
    • would get crusted up
    • clean it up, stops working
    • “they do what they want”
  • also sells new Cobra-brand machinery
    • best service in the industry
    • online forum with people reporting issues
  • getting to know your machine versus getting to know machinery period
  • 99% is operator error, even for him
  • patience important in the business
• patience the biggest virtue?
  • repair industry was a hustle: precision and speed and efficiency
  • learning to sew multiple rows of topstitching takes patience
  • trying to add speed before you’re ready ruins it
  • almost as hard as raising children
• tooled leather factory versus custom
  • more often embossed
  • price makes some of the difference
  • slightly bigger handmade shops have toolers
  • started tooling as a kid, hasn’t tooled boot tops
  • a niche
  • doesn’t know a lot of makers who do, though they’re out there
  • tooling out of prisons, e.g. Mexico
  • can commission toolers
  • some even commission inlay, stitching, overlays
  • respect it
  • some who stopped in repairs stop doing repair, esp. for others’ boots
• which socks
  • come in with a boot sock
  • midweight athletic socks
  • cotton fine
  • not a real thin dress sock
  • not a real heavy wool winter sock
  • feet swell and shrink, so does leather
  • get measured in the boot socks
  • no specific brand
  • gets frustrated with brands, some aren’t good anymore
• can wear cowboy boots if you’re not a working cowboy
  • “best footwear there is”
  • comfortable, classic
  • “westernwear has never gone away”
  • “be with the rest of the class”
• softest leather worked with
  • lambskin, but not a boot leather
  • goatskin, some calf, kangaroo
• sayings that rub you the wrong way
  • “the right way” attitude
  • “it fits like a glove”
  • “I have never bought a pair of gloves that fit.”
  • Hutch, in older years: “there’s nothing I can do about it”
• beyond boots
  • started from belts, wallets, chaps
  • vets, pants, hats, mittens
  • slings, scabbards, moccasins
  • sheaths, holsters
  • maybe three pairs of shoes
  • purple monk straps, tore a pair apart and made a pattern
  • guys hunting crocodiles in Florida, but don’t wear cowboy boots, made golf shoes
  • take wife’s old purse apart, make pattern, make a new one
• won’t make some things
  • “I’m gettin’ old and cranky”
  • cover for seat on a saddle
  • manufacturers out there doing that
  • pattern making takes a lot of time
  • competing with CAD and laser cutters
  • time and cost considerations
• full welt versus pegs, conversions
  • check heel height first
  • sometimes bring in daddy’s boots, make them fit me?
  • can sometimes relast from roper to higher heel
  • pegging doesn’t make it better
  • nails rust out, not the way cowboy boot makers do it
  • have to change the insole
  • pricey process
• favorite details
  • whatever the customer wants
  • “everything’s a detail when making it”
  • favorite: don’t mess up the details
  • Denver Broncos inlay “concept boot”
  • wants inlays to skive down very flat
  • “in the ditch” sewing on the inside of some inlays
  • sewing inlay really close to the edge
  • ==used Horween football leather for vamp, but lasting took the pebble out of it==
• Jim thanked Jeremiah for taking time to showcase bootmakers
• rarely updates his website